Hi All! I am sharing my journey with you. At the...

18 Apr 2012

1 day pre

Hi All! I am sharing my journey with you. At the ripe age of 19, I decided that I wanted big breasts, as I was always a gymnast and did not develop past an A cup. I wanted to feel beautiful and get attention! Well, I sure got my wish. For the past 8 years I have had 750cc saline implants, overfilled to 850cc implants, placed behind the muscle. With the weight and size of the implant and 8 years of gravity my breasts have fallen into my armpits more than I would like and have dropped. ALSO, at this point in my life, I feel that my big ole boobies are not my personality anymore as I am about to be married and will start having children in the next few years.

As my 27th birthday is approaching on Friday, I have decided to treat myself to a complete revision and place smaller implants. I currently am 5'2" and a very muscular 130lbs (size 3). I will be switching from saline to silicone and be reducing my implants by 200-250cc (will be doing sizers in surgery). We have 4 pairs of implants ordered currently: 600 mod plus, 650 mod plus, 600 high profile and 650 high profile. I will be letting my surgeon determine what she feels is the best for what I am looking to accomplish.

She will start the pocket revision and implant exchange through my original incision site (areola) and if she feels that my results will be much better through my inframmory fold, then she will switch to the new incision. RESULTS are much more important to me then my minimal scaring in a place where no one will ever see anyways. My surgery is scheduled for TOMORROW. I am very excited and plan to share my experience with everyone. As I have tried to research peoples experiences with going smaller with implants, it was hard and near impossible to find before and after photos or patient experiences.

This review is more for anyone thinking of this surgery. I do not have many questions, as I am completely comfortable with my surgeon giving me the best results and knowing exactly what I want and making the decision and last minute changes to achieve my desired results.

Why am I so open to letting my surgeon make these decisions you ask? That is because my surgeon is also my employer as I am the patient coordinator for my plastic surgeon. I am happy and honored to be able to share my experience with everyone on realself. Please feel free to ask questions to either my or my surgeon. She is a realself Top Contributing surgeon and once I verify with realself that I am okay to release her information as a patient but also an employee I will release her name. I will provide more details and follow up reviews after my surgery and into my recovery process.

Hello all! So surgery was last Thursday..the day...

23 Apr 2012

4 days post

Hello all! So surgery was last Thursday..the day before my birthday might I add. All in all I am okay. Boy, my surgeon was not lying when she told me that this recovery would be more difficult than my second implant exchange. I went from 750 high profile saline implants overfilled to 850cc and switched to 650cc SILICONE high profile implants. They were done through the same areola incision and MAJOR pocket revisions were made. All in all I am okay. Today was the first day that I took a shower by myself, took off my own sports bra and dressed myself...might I also add that today is my first day back! The first two days my breasts seemed very foreign because they looked like little squares. Today is the first day where they are actually rounded and looking like normal breasts. It is quite a shock to go down 200cc's although thats what I wanted it is still an adjustment that I will need to get used to. Dr. says that I need compression for the next 6 weeks while my internal sutures do their job! I had NO natural breast tissue, so she said that it was complicated due to how thinned out my skin is. Right now, I am very happy. She hoisted these girls up and brought them in to where I would like them. They aren't in my armpit anymore!!! I do have so skin looseness towards the fold of the breast that feels a little weird when I rub my fingertip on it, however, this should all recoil. The top of my breasts are as tight as I would like them. I was worried about loose skin and nipple placement. I am very happy and am so thankful. I'm glad to share this experience with anyone looking to go down in sizing. I highly recommend my surgeon. Feel free to ask any questions. I will try to get photos up from my before and post op photos. All in all....everything is great. I'm still tender...but I'm only 4 days post op. First day post op I laid in bed all day, 2nd day post op I woke up early and my father and I went to the swap meet for 5 hours! (walking very slowly of course). 3rd post op day, father and I went and had breakfast and fiance, father and I went to a nice dinner. So I'm very mobile and able to move around. Its just the sides are tender. I'm okay and happy to share my experience. Also, I allowed my surgery to be recorded for our youtube.com channel, so you will hopefully be able to see my entire surgery here soon enough once shortened for time.

Yesterday was a hard day to go back to work so...

24 Apr 2012

5 days post

Yesterday was a hard day to go back to work so soon. I think I over did it a little bit, by the end of the day I as exhausted and my body was begging to just lay down, have a warm meal and take pain medication. This recovery is no joke ladies. I would strongly advise a full week off of work. All in all I am okay though. Still have discomfort, but like I said, and like everyone involved in my surgery keeps telling me, this is from the capsulorraphy and all the stitching. All in all, every day is getting better and I can't wait to be able to breath a little easier once I don't have to have such a tight compression sports bra.

I am almost 4 months post op. I feel great....

15 Aug 2012

4 months post

I am almost 4 months post op. I feel great. Initially my breasts were very squared, which frightened me, and I felt that my breasts were the same size even though I reduced my implants by 200cc and switched to silicone (which is known for looking smaller than saline). However, for some reason, my body held onto water for a long period of time, as even at my 6 week photos (which were taken at 7 weeks and will be uploaded today), my breasts still looked much larger than I wanted them to be. I would say it took a full 10 weeks before my swelling was reduced enough for me to start seeing an accurate result. Which I am pleased to say looks much smaller, and is now rounded (because of my internal suturing I looked square initially, see my 7 week after photos) and the silicone feels AMAZING! Because I had such a large implant and I wanted to go smaller, Dr. Bandy recommended that I don't do anything less than a 600-650cc implant as she did not want me to have a lot of excess skin and because I have not yet had children, but plan to do so in the future. Because of this she did not want to perform a breast lift on me and remove skin that I would need for my tissue to expand during pregnancy. All in all, the recovery was not extremely hard, but it was more difficult than I had anticipated. I was very sore for about one week. For the next 8 weeks, I was also sore, but more of a bruise or deep muscle soreness from my internal sutures. I have been wearing 2 sports bras for support since my surgery as Dr. Bandy recommended to wear extra support for 6 months to help the internal sutures bond everything in place and to help me achieve my best result. I am very happy with my results, and after I have children, I will be excited to go even smaller. Most likely to a 500-550cc implant. This has been a wonderful experience and I cannot thank Dr. Bandy enough. I hope that my reviews and photos have helped those thinking of reducing the size of their implants or doing an internal lift. Its beneficial and well worth it if you are in the hands of a very good surgeon.

Probably won't be reviewing much else for this as...

28 Sep 2012

5 months post

Probably won't be reviewing much else for this as I am fully healed and don't think I will have any updates. But if anyone has any questions don't hesitate to answer. I will include some before and after bikini shots for those interested. :)

I love my doctor. Yes, I work with her daily, but I think that only made me more of a nervous crazy patient. I came up with every scenario possible for myself and she always smiled and explained everything thoroughly to me. Isabel our recovery nurse calls every patient the same day after surgery, and I was no different. My anesthesiologist called me the next day to ask how I was feeling, as he knew that I was concerned about vomiting and being groggy. He did great and I'm very appreciative. The whole experience was great. Can't wait to be completely healed and get into a more comfortable sports bra so that I'm not so compressed.